


In Syncopated Time

by Senji



Category: Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 13:50:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17044901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Senji/pseuds/Senji
Summary: Josh, Damon, and Elene's lives twine around each other through tumultuous events.





	In Syncopated Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sprocket](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprocket/gifts).



# BEFORE

Union scout _Kite_ , Van Maanen's Star, 2352 1/2  
_Josh_

The plan had been to hit Mariner Station on the first – the independent stations still celebrated New Year on Earth's old calendar – but a vane wobble on exit had left their scout under _V_ in the outer system and forced them to push it back a day. Hopefully alterday crews would still be nursing hangovers and not so sharp on longscan.

"Footprint!" came a sudden report from Scan, "I've got something large coming in behind us."

"Vector?" asked Kitha on Helm, "not that we've got much option to manoeuvre."

"I think they're going to go right over us. At that mass it's either a long hauler or a carrier."

"Bugger," replied Kitha, drawing looks from the rest of the crew. "Well, there's the plan down the tubes. Ideas?"

Josh piped up, "We could go with the suicide run and hope to get picked up in lifepods."

Scan interrupted. "They're running silent, and they'll have us on scan by now."

Kitha agreed. "It's worked before, at Pan Paris two years back. Get to the pods you lot and leave the last one open for me."

Josh set up his board to autotarget to the best of its ability, slaved it to a key on Helm, and ran for the pods slamming the 'lock behind him.

A klaxon sounded takehold and the next thing he remembered was coming to in a hospital bed.

* * *

Pell, 2351 10/10  
_Elene_

Last time they'd been here Elene had barely been 23, or about the same age as a stationer of 16. Now, six years of dodging warships later she was definitely a grown woman and the grown stationers she was noticing had been adolescents below her notice the last time.

One of those former-adolescents was a handsome young lawyer from one of Pell's Great Families. Each of the stations had them; the Osers of Esperance and the Vermeulens of Russells reaching out across space but none of them were quite so famous or influential as the Konstantines of Pell. Granted on Pell the Dees and the Lukases were also Names, but Konstantine was the name that spacers everywhere associated with Pell and it was a Konstantine who united Pell and Elene Quen of the _Estelle_ Quens.

"I'm staying!" she'd shouted to her mother. "It's only going to be two years before you're back, and then I'll know if I want to stay here the rest of my life."

Her mother opened her mouth to reply but Elene overrode her, "You practically begged Agnes to stay on Wyatt's, and it's not as if you're going to be sailing in peaceful space this trip. So it must be the _company_ I'm planning to keep."

She smiled before continuing, "Well, I'd like to see Aunt Mavis bring suit against the character of a Konstantine of Pell; particularly when the defendent works in Pell Legal himself..."

She paused for a heartbeat, fixing her mother's face in her mind.

"I'm gone, see you in two years; you know where _I'll_ be if you want to write."

And with that she stormed out, down the lift to A deck, and out of the passenger airlock for what suddenly felt like the last time.

* * *

Pell, 2351 10/10  
_Damon_

Damon was no stranger to paperwork. After all he'd just finished a year as an intern in which he'd found filling forms and request a welcome diversion from counting paperclips and mixing instant coffee; but this paperwork was, somehow, different.

The form for allocation of residential space was one that had been sitting half-completed on his terminal for nearly three years now, but he'd had to erase most of his old answers before starting again. Looking at it in this new light filled him with a small sense of dread. Dread because he was losing some of his independence or dread that it wasn't going to work out the way that a three week dockside fling suggested it might, he didn't know.

Then there was the form for temporary residence of a foreign citizen; one that required a reference and a guarantee from a Pell Citizen. Elene would have to initial and sign sections of this one to assert that she wasn't going to fabricate claims on a Station share nor apply for Citizenship without giving up her Ship share.

Then there was the form for partnership in advance of potential marriage; or as his father called it "Engagement". He was just contemplating that one when the apartment's door chimed and he heard his brother greeting Elene herself as she burst past him to stand alongside Damon's terminal.

"Love, you won't _believe_ the conversation I just had with my mother..."

* * *

# DURING

Pell, 2352 5/29  
_Elene and Damon_

Dinner had been a sorry affair; food was going to have to be rationed and best to start early, but neither of them had had the energy left to do more than heat what they had and throw it on plates. 

Now they found themselves once again in each other's arms in bed, both the same situation as earlier and 18 hours removed from it. Inevitably their conversation looped back to the previous night.

Elene wanted six; and filled a bright future with her descendants and, maybe, another ship - an _Estelle II_ \- for them to captain. Damon was sinking towards despondency; unable to see a future for those descendants, fearing the station would turn into a military encampment or be throw into Pell's Star. The situation with the Union survivor, Josh Talley, was providing an ethical emotional drain which, whilst it was a distraction, could hardly be said to be a _healthy_ distraction.

Nothing was resolved and the sex was desultory but as she drifted off Elene thought she saw some of the stress lines on Damon's face ease a little...

* * *

Pell, 2352 9/30  
_Elene and Josh_

The dinners had continued, and now Josh was sufficiently well known that he made his own way across the station to the Konstantine/Quen apartment. Elene was visibly pregnant, something that was as unusual here as it had been in what little of Cyteen Josh could remember.

Seeing her always gave him a little hope for the future and a feeling of continuity that he couldn't entirely place. He assumed he must have had family once, and certainly he'd had shipmates prior to Mariner, but he couldn't remember any of them.

It also made him feel guilty.

"I don't know if I've ever manage to express how grateful I am for all you've done for me."

"It's the least that we could do; and besides we spend all day trying to drag the whole station out of this disaster and it's good to occasionally see that we can make a bit of a difference to someone."

"It makes a very big difference to me. You're pretty much the only thing keeping me sane now I think; but I can't help but think how hard it must be for you to keep entertaining one of Union as if he were a friend."

"You aren't the same man you were then. But also Union isn't the enemy any more. Time is our enemy, and entropy, and to an extent so is the Fleet that is supposed to protect us..."

She trailed off and they sat in companionable silence until Damon returned.

* * *

Merchanter _Finity's End_ , deep space, 2352 1/6  
_Elene_

Elene was on the eleventh hour of her shift and only James Robert's industrial strength instant coffee was keeping her awake. Search and Rescue had completed negatively and the general mood was fracturing.

"Have to move now if we're going to keep things together," she thought and turned to face Scan One.

"How long since the last ship arrived?"

"Other than..." they tailed off and Elene nodded; noone wanted to put words to it. Scan One swallowed and continued, "... Well, _Orchid_ arrived about 18 hours ago".

"I think we've probably got everyone then. If we're going to do this thing we should do it now. My daughter's not getting any younger."

She turned again, more formally this time, to put the question to James Robert. He shrugged minutely and nodded – putting the ball firmly back in her court.

"Right people, message to the Alliance. We're going back – to liberate Pell."

* * *

# AFTER

Pell, 2354 7/10  
Observation Lounge  
_Josh and Elene_

It might be the longest speech she’d ever heard him make...

"I know I've apologised before, but then I didn't know who I was, or how involved I was. I like to think we've become good friends and partners and I can't stand to be dishonest with you. And I have a significant favour to ask of you, so you need to know where we stand.

"I don't know how much of this you know already, but I was a member of a Union special forces unit. We were sent to Mariner to take the station, and any others we could get to. Something must have gone wrong – I can't remember anything from Mariner after I entered the lifepod.

"I don't think I set the station to blow, but it was either something we did, or something they did in response to us. So in a very real way I'm responsible for _Estelle_..."

* * *

EC _In Memoriam Gloriana_ , deep space, 2354 12/16  
_Josh_

This mission had required significant planning. Unsurprisingly no-one had even considered sending Josh to Cyteen, but Mallory had identified a suitable lab in Stockholm after some discreet enquiries.

 _Norway_ had visited Sol ten months earlier, an honoured ally this time, but strategic necessities had meant that he'd had to make the second trip on civilian carriers.

Still the mission had been a success and now Josh Talley found himself sat in the loft of an Earth Company freighter watching over a small bundle of personal immortality. Technically a PR, Josh called him _Josh Talley Junior_.

* * *

Pell, 2355 2/28  
_Josh and Damon_

"We went through a lot in just one year didn't we?"

"That we did, and I honestly didn't believe we were going to get out of it on a number of occasions; for instance..."

Damon and Josh reminisced for a few minutes, before returning to the topic of conversation before them.

"So, once again, I have to thank you. _Norway_ is no place to bring up a child."

"What you do out there is vitally important. Anything we can do to support you..."

"No, no, it is us who should support you. The future is here. Oht there, we just keep the wolves of the past away from the cubs of the future."

Damon hesitated, then reached out to touch his old partner's arm, "Well, we will do our best to nurture your part of the future while you ensure we all have one..."

* * *

# AFTERMATH

Pell, 2374 4/18  
_Alicia, Angelo, and Josh Jr_

The first of the new ships was nearly ready. Indeed in all the important senses it was ready – they were down to provisioning, and hiring, and final systems tests.

The Alliance Council had refused to name her _Estelle II_ but Josh Talley had displayed a previously unknown political brilliance by telling Elene Quen that Union had already attempted to replicate an _Estelle_ and that was a poor omen to set over this project. So Elene would name the new ship _Tia_ , after her mother.

Elene had other things to be angry about though. On paper Alicia Quen was a keel-plate owner but she was overseeing the shipyards producing the next four of the new ships. Her berth would be taken by her brother Angelo who would sit behind a desk as _Tia_ 's Head of Legal.

Alongside Elene on the podium was her long-time friend Josh, here to represent Mallory and sponsor her choice of representative from the Alliance Military; his own son Josh Jr, who would be one of four taking the Armscomp board.

In front of the podium were half a thousand founding crew of the new ship – some young hopefuls denied promotion in their ships of birth, others ship-lorn Merchanters from the war, who'd found day-to-day existence on the stations or as second class crew on desperate ships.

Elene had a long speech prepared with help from Pell Legal and the Psychs; but seeing the hope and impatience on the faces in front of her she put it back in her pocket.

"I name this ship _Tia_. May she bring prosperity and hope to all who serve on her and to the Alliance as a whole.

"Go forth, you fortunate few, and make yourselves anew a life among the stars."

**Author's Note:**

> Dating is based exclusively on the dates in Downbelow Station; other sources may disagree a bit...
> 
> Thanks to my beta; any remaining errors are definitely not their fault!


End file.
